Racial Discrimination in the Society - Book Report/Review Example

Racial Tensions Surrounding Tom Robinson (To Kill a Mockingbird) with Joe Christmas (A Light in August)       I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by/ madness, starving hysterical naked, /dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn/looking for an angry fix … who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat/up smoking in the supernatural darkness … who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes/hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy/among the scholars of war/ who were expelled from the academies for crazy &/publishing obscene odes on the windows of the/skull,… (Ginsberg, Howl)         There is no specific measuring tool to determine the dimension of racial discrimination or the extent of evil that it can spread in the society. Man’s senseless contemplation of their self-oriented social superiority and his actions to prevent such prejudiced approaches, have caused enough damage to the society yet, they still blinded by such inhumane perceptions. Two centuries back, the racial discrimination factor was all pervasive and during this point of time so much torture and cruelty have been inflicted over dark people by their ‘superior’ white counterparts that an actual historical documentation would surely degrade the graceful face of humanity. Several such works have already been done and those have reflected the actual picture of the society but at the core of heart white people have still remained equally discriminative as well as hateful towards their ‘inferior’ African-American counterparts. Looking at the 20th and 21st century world we see that people claiming to provide highest preference towards humane faculties but the actual situation exists to the stark contrast with reality. The racial discrimination factor has occupied a special place in the scope of American poetics and apart from mainstream historical documentation the literary creations have also played a great role in exposing the true face of crooked humanity. Racial discrimination and cruelty inflicted over the people from African-American community have pained the authors in different ways and the brutal face of society in dealing with the black people terrifies the reader. Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and William Faulkner’s ‘A Light in August’ are two such novels that have represented the actual picture of how the white dominated society is always keen on making a victim out of a black person. Social antagonism and hatred have amounted to such an extent against the Afro-American people as if the white people want to annihilate the whole community by brutalizing, torturing and destroying it finally. There is no particular reason or any prevailing psychical disorder that can explain such mentality but such antagonism prevails and every moment that people get a scope they inflict the most terrified form of torture over the black fellow human beings.       While analyzing the characters of protagonists in both these novel, it becomes really tough to determine between Tom Robinson and Joe Christmas who has suffered more amidst such a hostile existence that is solely aimed at enjoying the scene that a black person has been victimized and subject to pain. Both the characters have belonged to two separate settings and they have also gone through separate course of action. But, as they are ‘black people’ and not human beings, due to that reason, they have to be a scapegoat in the hands of the society. It has been witnessed among people, suffering from a particular type of psychological disorder, developing a kind of sadist approach and they feel pleasure by seeing other people suffering from pain. Looking at the society as it has been depicted in these two novels, it seems that inhabitants of the society are suffering from such problem. It also seems that people of the society are bearing the burden of a great offense and they need someone to suffer the pain on their behalf.  Finally, Tom Robinson and Joe Christmas have become the victims of the society. Looking at the magnitude of suffering and torture that both these people have endured it becomes tough to determine that in which society the problems related to racial tension are causing more harm to an individual. The problem of survival in both the communities have become really hard for the protagonists but comparing both the situations and the kind of hostilities that both the characters have suffered, it seems that Tom Robinson of the To Kill a Mockingbird has suffered more and through his suffering the real picture of individual plight becomes more conspicuous in the racially divided Southern part of America, during the time both these stories were written.       Living in a society that is already comprised of discrimination, crime and violence, it is responsibility of every individual to take care that at least we do not kill a “mockingbird” – a bird that is harmless and rather gives us pleasure by singing for us. The innocent people like Tom and Boo Radley are similar kinds of ‘birds’ who have lived in the human society only to become first isolated, and then victimized by the society. We, the members of the social structure take away the social rights of these people but this is the high time when we must question as a human being if we really have that right or not. Often harming such innocent people might just lead to our own downfall and injury and thus might follow from divine justice. Tom Robinson has never expected that he will be a part of the society and he never attempted to do that. He was always sure about the state of his existence in the society but always tried to serve the inhabitants with his pure intentions. Being a part of the Afro-American community he has the right of not being recognized by the society, he has the right to be identified as a true embodiment of devilish power, he has the right to be identified as essentially guilty at the core of his heart and he has the right to receive the sole identity of such a character who casts his lustful eyes to the sensuous beauty of the white women and as he is always vengeful in his heart towards the white society he can only brutalize or molest that woman, hidden from everyone’s eyes. Diversity and discrimination have forever been an indispensable component of human nature. Whether we move back to the hard times of the Great Depression or come to the modern day’s society, we find a strong reflection of racialism everywhere. As Scout, the daughter of Mr. Atticus, narrates the story, the consequences of being either an outcast or an outsider comes into play. When we talk of an outsider, we usually refer to an alien or person from a different community or nation altogether – a man who is treated as one belonging to a separate group bearing a different identity. In this story, Tom Robinson, being a Negro or a black man is treated as an outsider to the society. This is a direct consequence of the highly popularized racial discrimination of the times. This treatment reaches its height when the white lawyer, Atticus decides to fight his case. The story’s opening chapter itself sets the background for this ill treatment of an outsider in a society dominated by the whites. This is well illustrated in the lines “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. … Somehow it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summers day” (Lee, Chapter 1, p.5). It is indeed true, as we see along with the flow of the story, that mostly the black people who were the underprivileged sections, represented by Tom, and would feel a hard summer heat.       Atticus Finch, the well-respected lawyer of the town, has taken on the case of a black man called Tom Robinson. Tom has been accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell who belongs to the Ewell family, which the society of Maycomb categorizes as trash. Atticus received great criticisms for his unique decision. However, Atticus wanted to reveal the truth about the black fellow to the people of the town. In this context the reference of Boo Radley automatically comes as he, like Tom, has also been treated as such a figure, who is alien from the social plain. Boo never interacted with anyone or even came out of the house. No one seemed to know exactly what his faults were and people know him from what other people of the society had to say about the person. The children were always curious about him unless one day Aunt Stephanie told them that once, while cutting a magazine, Boo had driven the scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out and rubbed them on his pants, and carried on his activities. Mrs. Radley also began to lose her hair, teeth, and right forefinger after marrying him. All these began to make the children think of him as evil. Thus, the stories that different people spoke of were primarily responsible for the treatment of Boo as an outsider. The curiosity and the intense mystery of the children is revealed in their reactions when they see the shadow of a man who they think to be Boo Radley and is expressed in the words of Scout: “Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man with a hat on. At first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree trunks never walked. The back porch was bathed in moonlight, And the shadow, crisp and toast, moved across the porch towards Jem. Dill saw it next. He put his hands to his face. When it crossed Jem, Jem saw it. He put his arms over his head and went ridged.” (Lee, Chapter 6, p.53) It was not until later in the story that the children realize that the stories were not all true –“Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.” (Lee, Chapter 23, p.227)       However, there is a subtle difference between the treatment of Boo and Tom. The main difference between the treatment and status of Boo and Tom lies in the fact that while the former was an outcast of the society while Tom was an outsider. Boo was treated as someone who somehow had no right to mingle with the common people. Making and narrating stories about him achieved this. It need not be a true story as long as it helped to maintain or increase the distance between Boo and the rest of the society. The issue that was used against him primarily pertained to his actions (whether real or presumed). On the other hand Tom was by birth an outsider to the community or the society by virtue of his color and heredity or the black community to which he belonged. The blacks were never saved from the harsh consequences of a trial, especially when his rival party belongs to the white community. The judge, despite having all evidence in Tom’s favor could not finally give his verdict to free Tom. Though in this paper we are mainly intended to analyze the character development of Tom and how he has suffered his fate in the society, mention about Boo becomes relevant as, on one hand it makes the grim setting of the novel denser and on the other hand such treatment exposes the fact that Tom is not the only person who has been victimized by the inhuman power hierarchical structure of the society. Tom has always been considered as an outsider due to the apparent physiological factors that are reflected through his appearance but Boo’s treatment by the society provides more emphasis over the fact that despite there is no special reasons to be criticized or alienated by the society, yet he suffers the same fate. Automatically the reader understands that the society and its ‘normal’ inhabitants are always in search of a way or an outlet through which they can oppress and torture another person. Any individual, who cannot be classified rather termed as a typically normal human being, can be a subject to the torture of the social inhabitants. It has always been a common motive of any society that it always seeks to draw every individual in its scope and orient him according to a particular pattern by the means of discouraging or eradicating the individual features of his character. Thus, it can be said, in accordance with the ambiance of the novel that society actually aims at containing human archetypes but not human beings. The society of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is monotonous and it is difficult to identity a person specifically depending over his/her humane aspects. Amidst such murky setting Boo and Tom seem to be the only source of light as they have refused from being a part of the society due t their spontaneous impulse. Tom could not be controlled neither can be Boom. As the society has realized the truthful fact, that is why, it did not attempt to make them a part of it but satisfies its vengeance by keeping them outside from the scope of social treatment, identifying them as outsiders.       The trail scene of the novel can be regarded as a brutal mock of the author against the system of social racial discrimination. The scene commenced with the placement of the evidence by the white family of Mr. Ewell. According to their side of the story, Miss Mayella Ewell had assigned some work to Tom while her father was out. Meanwhile Tom came to their place and violently beat up Mayella and raped her unless her father, Mr. Ewell came and he ran away. However, when Tom was asked to provide his defense, his story says the reader that Mayella was actually the person, who had called him to her place and thrown her arms around him and began to kiss him. It was then that her father had return and began to beat her. As Tom was scared, he ran away from there. However, according to Atticus and his family the evidence was clearly in Tom’s favor. For instance, the sheriff diagnosed that Mayella was hit on the right side of her face, which would mean that she was hit with a left hand. While Tom’s left hand was useless due to an accident, Mr. Bob Ewell was a lefty himself. Hence, the evidence supported Tom’s innocence. This was reflected in the Judge’s own words, as he said to Mr. Ewell, “You're left handed Mr. Ewell” (Lee, chapter 18, p.185) however, he soon changed his tone before giving his verdict against Tom and threw at the black defendant, “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?” (Lee, Chapter 19, p.197), as if it was his sin to feel sorry of the white girl’s condition sues to his racial boundaries. After hours of thinking and re thinking, the judge delivered his judgment against Tom and sentenced him to imprisonment. The verdict is unfortunate and perhaps the social structure is also responsible. However, Atticus revealed his satisfaction in the fact that the decision took longer than usual. He makes his very significant statement at the end, saying, “The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is” (Lee, Chapter 20, p.208). This reflected the fact that despite his innocence, his skin color leads him to his end. The ultimate consequence is even more tragic as Tom tried to escape from the prison and was shot to death. The children, including the daughter of Mr. Atticus, who were growing up as the perfect product of the society and who also went against the decision of her father to defend the black man finally realized about the kind of blasphemy that the social structure is dependent over. It is most unfortunate to see that despite knowing the truth no action has been taken by the people as well by the system of judiciary. Tom was victimized or he had been exposed to the path of death. Along with the society the law makers and the judicial system have shaken hands in the heinous crime of the assassination of innocence. As they have experienced the truth, the children are no more concerned about the proper justification behind such verdict. The hypocritical existence of the whole system has shattered the faith of children over truth and honesty. Tom was judged poorly due to his origin and thus his actions were rather judged by his color or heredity.       Though Tom has been projected as a harmless mockingbird in the society, yet the traits of his honesty and capacity to fight for just reasons show that these are certain essential humane qualities that are missing from the inhabitants of the society. People of the society or the perfect supporters of Mr. Ewell have only been bothered about victimizing Tom but they do not have that much of moral courage to accept the truth and identify him as a true human being. On the other hand, Tom, though he has never made an exhibition of outrageous courage but at the right point of time emerged as a true embodiment of humanity. Tom had tried to run away from prison despite knowing the fact that he would be killed in the process and thus his family would be saved from the taunting of the society. Miss Maudie’s reflection seems to be very relevant in this context, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird”. (Lee, Chapter 10, p.90) Like a mockingbird Tom passes away from the world of mundane trivialities. Though he has never done any wrong to any person but at the same time he has to sacrifice his life by enduring the pangs of the society. His death was never in vain as, depending over his moral courage he has contributed to the best extent for the safety of his family on one hand and on the other his death has resulted in the exposure of the actual face of derogated humankind.       Though Tom has suffered to the greatest extent in the novel but at the same time we also see that people who are associated with Tom are also on the verge of experiencing the same fate. Mr. Atticus, form his apparent physiological features, is very much a part of the society but at the same time due to his moral courage and capacity to support the righteous, he has lost the right or privilege to remain as a part of the society, represented by the people like Mr. Ewell. It is due to such reason the attorney was subject to attack from the people of the same society, having same physiological ‘virtues’ and the same reason has brought danger over the lives of Scout and her friends. Mr. Ewell could not satisfy his vengeful motive against Tom and on the same occasion he has also been greatly humiliated by Scout’s father. He does not have the courage to stand before Mr. Atticus. Thus, he comes to revenge him through the means of his daughter, who is, compared to him physically of quite less power. Thus, looking at the ambiance of the novel from this perspective it can said that the crisis of survival is not only hovering over a person who is racially discriminated but such critical situation does not show mercy to anyone.       However, Faulkner’s ‘Light in August’ is not so bleak and terrifying in its portrayal. The novel commences with the tone of a detective novel and the main plot of the novel revolves around the murder of Joanna Burden. The author has created the ambiance of suspense through the method of providing a great deal of focus over the motive of the protagonist and in this process he has intentionally withheld a great deal of information that is related to the solution of the sense of mystery. In the very first chapter of the novel we are introduced to all the main characters that have played important parts in exploring the actual situation of the novel, namely, Joe Christmas, Lena Grove, Byron Bunch and Gail Hightower. It is until chapter 5 that the audience is again face to face with Joe Christmas and the ambiance of tension again reaches its culmination as the author focuses completely over the unpredictable movement of Joe on the day of the murder. The seven chapters of the book aftermath focus over the character of Joe and his background. At the same time it explains the main reason for his unpredictable character and erratic movement. We come to know about the Joe Christmas’ background that he was brought up in a Memphis orphanage in the early days of his life. As he was a mulatto, in the orphanage also he was subject of racial discrimination and at the same time there was a desperate attempt on part of the authority to send him to an orphanage exclusively for black people. However, he was finally rescued by Simon McEachern. During the late adolescent period in the life of Joe his father discovered that he has developed an affinity for a lady and sneaks out to go for a date with her. Mr. McEachern attempted to stop him from his fatherly authority but Joe refused to accept it and engages in a physical fight with him, either to kill or to cause him serious physical injury that is not clear from the narrative of the novel.       Such an incident leaves a deep mark over his psychological development and for the next fifteen years of his life he kept on escaping and wandering at different places. When he was 33 he reached the Jefferson and started living in with Joanna Burden in terms of sadomasochistic sexual relationship. Joanna Burden is also a non conventional character like that of Joe and she enjoys an isolated existence away from the people of white community. Faulkner turns the attention of the audience towards Joe as the killer of Joanna Burden as he has clearly mentioned the incident of confrontation between him and Joanna. The final nice chapters have mainly focused over the search for Joe. Amidst we also see that Byron Bunch and Gail Hightower both engage in conflict with each other regarding Lena and Joe. Finally we come to the concluding part of the novel, where we see that Lena has given birth to a baby and Joe expires.       Throughout the course of the novel we see that Joe Christmas has never become a part of the society and he has not attempted to be a part of the society also. Though “He do not look anymore like a nigger than I do. But it must have been the nigger blood in him. It looked like he had set to get himself caught....” (Faulkner, 347) Like his sexual partner Joanna he has also lived as an alien. The only difference between them is that Joanna was living under her own terms and Joe has never been considered as a part of the society. Joanna’s role is self imposed but Joe has been made an outcast by the society itself. The taste of socially deprived existence has been experienced by Joe since the time he was discovered as a part of the African-American community. At this phase of time he was under the supervision of an orphanage. But no one cared for his sensitive child mind; rather they were busy in attempting to identify him as a creature of illicit blood. It is since this time he lost his actual identity as a human being and only remained as a part of the illicit community. Since his childhood Joe gradually understood that he is born only to experience the bitter taste of deprivation. However, at the same time, he also had a great urge to anchor something that he can call to be his own. Joe’s conflict with Simon McEachern can be explained under this light. If this person could have taken proper care of Joe, like his own son then he could have been recovered from such complex but Mr. McEachern was always ore keen to receive his gratefulness as he has recovered Joe out of his horrible existence at the orphanage, “Christmas. A heathenish name. Sacrilege. I will change that….He will eat my bread and he will observe my religion….Why should he not bear my name?” (Faulkner, 142) On Joe’s part it was almost impossible for him to tolerate that he will be deprived of his only possession, his name. During his adolescence such claim over the things of his possession was more serious and as he was stopped by his father from going to date with the woman he loves, he even engages himself with a serious fight. This very incident was sufficient enough to provide him with the feeling that he does not belong to anyone and he is here to despise everything. He starts hating everything around him and never was he emotionally involved with anyone. Since the experiences of his childhood he has gradually understood that he can only despise. Thus, he stats despising religion, despising human being especially women, which is clear from his sadomasochistic enjoyment of erotic pleasure with Joanna and finally he also learnt to despise him as well. Joe, like a wild beast "upon its own muscles alone and which is the pause to renew breath hates every tree and grassblade in sight as if it were a live enemy hates the very earth...." (Faulkner, 431) The author has attempted to show that how racial discrimination makes a human being an outlaw. Children like Joe always have a desire to live like everyone else in the society but just due to the factor racial discrimination they are not allowed to enjoy all those aspects that a human being can enjoy, being a part of the white people dominated society. Though Joe has contributed to a great extent in his development as a perfect outsider of the society and slowly he has taken himself out of its scope, but the first major thrust has come from the society itself. In the conclusion, after judging both the novels from independent perspective it can be said that ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ depicts a more pessimist form of the society. Looking at Joe’s character we can say that he has contributed to a great extent in accelerating the pace towards his end but on the other hand Tom had nothing to do with such things. He was always humble yet the society was keen on making a victim out of him just because of the factor that he belongs to a different or socially inferior position. It has always been said that man is the maker of his own fate. In Joe’s case it is very much true but when it comes to Tom we see him just a mere victim of the situation. Not only that: all the people who are associated with Tom or supported the fact of his innocence are equally attempted of being condemned by the society. Thus, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ represents such a society that is hostile for survival not only for those people who are racially discriminated but also for those people, who possess the courage of raising their voice for the protection of humanity as well as innocence.     Works Cited: 1. Ginsberg, Allen, Howl, available at: http://members.tripod.com/~Sprayberry/poems/howl.txt, retrieved on: 12th May, 2009 2. Faulkner, William, Light in August, Vintage International, 1991 3. Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird, Grand Central Publishing, 1988 Read More